Attack on festive hits 'torture'

Noddy Holder believes Slade's 'Merry Xmas Everybody' is not so much a record as a pension plan. But not everyone shares the Slade singer's enthusiasm for the endless stream of festive records that assaults our ears at this time every year.

Unions and noise pollution groups are proposing to take legal action on behalf of beleaguered shop staff forced to listen to never-ending looped recordings of Christmas music. 'It's an issue that has been brought to our attention,' confirmed Paul Clarke, spokesman for the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers, Usdaw. 'What we're saying is that, if Christmas carols are being played on the same CD repeatedly, that could create an unhealthy working environment. It must drive people to distraction.'

The union's combative stance has been backed by the UK Noise Association, a coalition of groups that campaigns against noise pollution. 'If people are exposed to something continually, it's no different to being tortured,' said Val Weedon, the association's national coordinator. 'We are asking government to look into whether it is something that the Health and Safety Executive could take on board.'

However, Catherine Barker, an employment lawyer with Pinsent Masons, said it would be hard to bring a legal challenge. 'The biggest hurdle for the employee would probably be to demonstrate that his or her illness was reasonably foreseeable by the employer. This would involve the employer being on some form of notice that the particular employee had some vulnerability to Christmas music, the ill health in question, or both.'

British shopworkers are not the first to develop a Scrooge-like mentality when it comes to festive music. Czech workers once staged a walk-out in protest at the playing of Christmas music, while in 2003 an Austrian shop workers' union mounted a successful campaign to get such music banned.